Flashbacks
by Jokerang
Summary: If one looked at their backgrounds, Maria Hill and Frank Castle were not as incompatible as they seemed. They were molded by tragedy, but sustained by will. Punisher-Hill verse. Taking requests for one-shots. Please R&R.
1. Background

**A/N: In-between chapters of my main fic at the moment, Not Ready to Die (which will get updated about once a week), I'll be writing these one-shot snippets (for lack of a better word) that go into my "Punish-Hill" verse. Warning, talk of self harm and suicide.**

1975\. A baby boy is born.

He's his parent's first child, and he'll be their only. He's quite a healthy little baby, this Francis Castle. Though his dad prefers to call him Frank. He'll need an Americanized name if he wants to get ahead further in the world.

1982\. A baby girl is born.

The pregnancy is difficult, and the birth no better. She will be her parent's only child, and not by choice. Maria Hill's mother will succumb to childbed fever a few days later. It's something the father of the family will never forget. Or forgive.

1983\. The boy is seven.

Some kids in the fourth grade steal his new bicycle. When he tries to tell them to give it back, they beat him up and send him crying home. The father 'comforts' his son by telling him he needs to man up, because the world ain't fair for anyone.

The boy considers this. He puts himself to sleep with the promise that no one is crossing him again. And in three weeks, the boy gets the bike back. You don't what to know how, though. All that is known is that the fourth graders never bother him again.

1990\. The girl is eight.

She's made her first B on a test. She dreads what will happen when she comes home, since she knows her dad expects nothing but the best from her. How else to treat the daughter for her sin of matricide?

A half hour of belt lashes later, young Maria is silently sobbing in her bedroom. She wishes the stepmother was here; at least shows some kindness. But that woman is always away. It's just her and her father here. She resolves to never miss a step in her schoolwork again, as she knows it's the only way she'll ever escape this hell.

1992\. The boy is sixteen.

His father's policy of 'it's a cruel world, survive in it' is having mixed results. He's a smart kid, and by no means dumb. He's just getting in too many fights. Most of them are against bullies, but that doesn't matter. He's getting written up for most of them, and it's leaving stain after stain.

His academic career is stalling. College is probably not an option. Then an advisor suggests the armed forces.

2000\. The girl is eighteen.

She graduated near the top of her class. She's headed off to one of the state's best colleges. But what really made her happy was her dad.

Her dad, the one who alternated between drowning in his sorrow and taking it out on her, actually bothered to show up. He didn't say or do much, but the fact that he was physically there maybe, just maybe, revealed that he was ready to make his peace with the world.

A few months later at orientation, another student says hi to her. He introduces himself as Adrian. He's cute in a boyish way. Turns out he said hi as part of a dare, but they spend a good two hours just talking. Turns out they have a lot in common. They schedule a meet up for next week at a local coffee shop.

2001\. The boy – or rather, a man – is now twenty six.

The past decade was one of in-and-out operations. He got into the Marines first, and after they saw how good of a job he could do with just about anything, they sent a SEAL recruiter to talk to him. After that, he skyrockets.

He's called the anti-cavalry. That's because he's not the cavalry, he's the guy you send to take out the damn cavalry. The stories of him come in from Serbia, Tanzania, Peru, and anywhere there's a fight to be fought. He feels it's his responsibility to do his part in making the world a safer place. And his superiors feel he does a splendid job of it.

While back in the states after his first stint in Afghanistan after 9/11, he's jogging around Central Park when a woman, a very attractive one if he could say that, comes on his right. He sees her do this the next day. And the next.

So he formulates a plan. He jogs alongside her, makes a few comments about the weather, and then introduces himself. Ten minutes later after some tactical flirting, he's got two things. One: her name. The surname is fancy and French-sounding, although she was born in the states. Two: her number.

2002\. The man is a year older

Eight months later and they're having a Roman Catholic wedding. The priest asks Frank to take Maria Helena Dechambeau in marriage until death do them part. He does so happily. For once since he became a man, Frank doesn't feel the need to fight anymore. He'll take a new job in private security and settle down into family life. And he's happy with it.

2003\. The woman, no longer a girl, is twenty one.

She's living with Adrian now. Of course her father would never accept it. And he didn't. But she doesn't give a damn anymore. It's her life now, and she can do what she wants.

Until she can't.

She gets the call. Adrian died working for SHIELD. It shatters her world. The one person that finally understood her is taken away. And no amount of money or compensation from SHIELD is going to change that.

So she slits her wrists, hoping to end it.

That didn't go so well. It hurts like fuck.

As she and the neighbor clean up, she recalls that Adrian joined his last employer, SHIELD, because he wanted to help, to make a difference. She searches them up to see how to get in. She doesn't care how hard it'll be. It's a new mission: honoring Adrian's memory.

2005\. She's now twenty four.

She got into SHIELD, with some luck and sob stories. She's overwhelmed at first by everything about it. It's very physically taxing. But she tells herself that she's been through worse. She's survived a rough childhood and a boyfriend's death. Working for a government agency can't be all that hard.

She's a sucker for the rules and does everything by the books. In fact, Maria Hill is so good a being a SHIELD agent that she's the subject of various gossip. Some say her rapid promotion is because Fury feels sorry for her about Adrian. Others talk about how much of a bitch she is, how she never does group missions. And yet, she's getting the job done better than five men with a day's advance.

One day a new recruit named Natalia Romanova is brought in by agent Clint Baron, code name Hawkeye. Maria's put in charge of getting her adjusted to SHIELD life. But even the woman they call Black Widow is turn off by Hill's no nonsense attitude and lack of anything funny. Any time Natasha tries to connect with her handler, she's rebuffed. Coldly, but to Hill, not cruelly. Natasha doesn't see it that way, though.

And thus Maria Hill's Russian nickname is born: Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden. The woman who's heart would melt if it ever loved again.

**A/N: This will have two chapters. The second chapter will pick up where I left off and continue until the moment when Frank and Maria meet for the first time in Stark Tower.**


	2. Background Cont

2009\. Maria Hill is now twenty-seven.

She made level 7 this year. It's extremely fast for a woman who joined with no prior military or police background.

As with the past six years before, she's being rumored about. Talked about. Many of the men think she's quite attractive, though they won't touch her with a ten-foot pole due to her ice cold demeanor. It's a turnoff to most men. There are two exceptions, though. One is Phil Coulson. He's very friendly, and one of the few people she doesn't dislike. They even go on a few dates, though they get the mutual feeling of 'just friends' and they resolve to keep it that way.

That's fine with her. Phil Coulson has a heart of gold and sees the good in everyone. He doesn't deserve someone like her.

The other is a STRIKE team member named Brock Rumlow. He's engaged in a high stakes game of flirting. But Maria, despite all of Rumlow's attention, doesn't bother giving him any in return. One day Rumlow tries a different approach. He tells her she needs to get over Adrian, that there are plenty more fish in the sea to be crying over spilled milk.

Maria's response is to sucker punch the STRIKE team leader in the face. When he gets up, he growls a string of epithets and attempts to hit her back. She's way too fast for him, though, and proceeds to twist his arm. Leaving him to tend to his injuries, she walks off, everyone around her too intimidated to say or do anything about it.

When Fury doesn't discipline Hill, Rumlow is furious. He tells everyone that she's Fury's lapdog, or even better to him, that she's sleeping with the director to get out of trouble.

But after what she did to Rumlow, no one gives Maria Hill any more grief.

2010\. Frank Castle is now thirty six.

His two children, eight and nine respectively, are growing up beautifully. Frank junior and little Lisa bring him so much joy. His wife could not be more happy or satisfied with their life. He's been doing security for malls, Wall Street, and various places, and he's satisfied too

Then tragedy strikes.

While he's at work, his family was taking a walk in Central Park. They stumbled upon a mafia extortion and killing. Hoping to cover up their crimes, the gangsters assigned to that area gun down the Castle family and flee the scene, hoping to evade the law.

But they won't evade Frank Castle.

The paramedics find him at the park, with the body of his wife in his arms, his children around them. He mutters a promise: never again. Never again would he allow such sickness to fester and destroy lives. He wants to turn to the police, but when he does, he finds them just as bad as the mafia. Everyone was in someone's pockets. But not him.

After he goes to the morgue, views the bodies one last time, and arranges the funerals, he opens up a safe in his house. It's one he hoped to never open again in his life. But fate arranged for him too. And he might as well take the hand dealt to him.

In this safe are the tools of his old trades. The trades of extortion, torture, tracking, hunting, and of course, killing.

The rest of the year sees a trail of bodies form from New York to Milan to Cairo. Wherever there is injustice, crime, and corruption, Frank has resolved to fix it, one way or another. And those ways often end in bloodshed.

Frank the mall cop is dead to the world. There is only the Punisher. And he gets on people's radars.

Including SHIELD's.

2011\. The Punisher's reign continues. His kill list is bleeding red. The Punisher becomes known to the intelligence community.

Nick Fury decides to take action. He promotes Maria Hill to Deputy Director and tells her to catch this runaway vigilante. She's given a trio of agents to command: Coulson, Barton, and Tony Masters, the antithesis of the FNG. They spend several months chasing after him, but make no success. Until one fine day in St. Petersburg, Russia, they do.

That day ended with Barton suffering multiple injuries from a fall, Masters missing and presumed dead, and Maria Hill knocked out by the man they call the Punisher. He doesn't kill women and children. Others tell her she's lucky to be alive, after encountering that kind of man.

2012 goes swimmingly for both of them. Maria's working around the clock. One week in the summer is in particular notable: she's fighting a brainwashed Barton, the world's first alien invasion, and disorder within her organization. But by this time, she's capable of keeping it all in check. Barely.

As for Frank, he's minding his own business during all of this. New York couldn't matter less to him. He's got a one-man war on the mob to fight. Aliens and gods can come later.

2014\. Maria Hill is now thirty two.

You thought Loki and Chitauri were bad enough? Try traitors within your organization, the one you joined to honor the memory of a fallen loved one, trying to kill you at your every move. As one might guess, Hill doesn't show much of her uhurt on the outside. Most of the people she considers friends are the good guys. That's a relief. But her world is once again sent out of orbit.

With SHIELD's entire database dumped online and every other intelligence organization wanting her head on a stick, she turns to Stark. Tony Stark. She loathes the man; he had everything in life handed to him on a silver platter. But he's got lawyers that can keep the CIA, Interpol, the GRU, and God knows how many other groups from having a chat with her.

In 2014, the Punisher took down a Russian mob.

2015\. Frank Castle and Maria Hill meet again, this time under less hostile circumstances. Castle's taken an offer from Tony Stark to work for him. And that means dealing with Maria Hill on a daily basis.

They don't know it yet, but they each might just be what the other needs.

**A/N: Well, that's that. The backgrounds have been done. Now I'll be taking requests for one-shots about Maria and/or Frank before they met just before the events of AoU. As always, please rate and review.**

**-Jokerang**


End file.
